Violent crime rates decline in 3 Michigan cities

Violent crime dropped in three Michigan cities known for their problems with violence.

Detroit, Flint, and Saginaw have long been ranked high on the FBI’s violent crime list.

But new stats released this week showed violent crime dropped by double-digits in all three cities. From 2014 to 2015, violent crime declined in Detroit (13%), Flint (14.3%) and Saginaw (18.1%).

All three cities have been part of a special Michigan State Police program targeting high-crime areas with stepped-up law enforcement and community engagement.

“We are pleased to see that our proactive policing efforts are making a positive difference in reducing violent crime impacting Michigan citizens,” Col. Kriste Kibbey Etue, director of the MSP.

Governor Rick Snyder credits the state police and local law enforcement agencies with “reinventing public safety.”

Flint Mayor Karen Weaver is glad her city has dropped out of the top ten most violent mid-sized cities, but she says Flint “has a long way to go.”

The FBI says the number of murders reported by local law enforcement agencies jumped by roughly 10% in 2015 from the year before.

New crime statistics released on Monday show the estimated number of murders in the nation was 15,696, or a 10.8% jump from the 2014 estimate.

The FBI says that, overall, violent crime rose by 3.9 percent in 2015. But it's still down from where it was five and 10 years ago.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch addressed the new statistics in a speech Monday in Little Rock.

She said that while the numbers show that "we still have so much work to do," 2015 represented the third-lowest year for violent crime in the past two decades. She says crime is stable or down in many communities.

The Flint police department is taking a more aggressive stance on crime.

Standing before a conference table piled high with guns, drugs and $18,000 cash, Flint Police Chief Timothy Johnson says a new unit has spent the past few weeks cracking down on street crime.

“This would have been on the streets if it wouldn’t have been for the efforts of the Crime Area Target team,” says Johnson. “There’s probably a lot more out there than we have on this table. I’m quite sure it is.”